Saturday, July 7, 2012

Our first visitors

As of July 25th, Greg & I will have been living in Portland for six months. The time is flying by! And now that we are in the best weather months of the year, it's the perfect time for visitors. My mom, Diane, and step-dad, Ronnie, who live in Orlinda, TN, were the first to come visit us. The timing of their visit was actually dictated by a wedding (one of Ronnie's closest childhood friends in Tennessee now lives in eastern Oregon and his daughter was getting married). So mom & Ronnie arrived on Sunday, June 17th and departed on Tuesday, June 26th.

Both mom & Ronnie had been to Portland before, separately, but neither had spent any real time in the city. Since I've traveled with both of them extensively over the past seven years, I have a pretty good idea of what they like to see & do. To prepare for their visit, I made a list of some of my favorite places in the Portland metro area as well as possible day trips. Then I let them choose how they wanted to spend their time here.

As I mentioned before, at this time of year the weather is much more conducive to being outside, but we still get a fair amount of rainy days in June. As it got closer to the week of their visit, I watched the forecast closely in order to determine the best days for activities that would be most enjoyable in sunny weather. I also knew that in order to see everything they wanted to see as well as to attend the wedding in Hermiston (three hours east of Portland), we'd need a car. Based on the forecast and our overall plans, I decided to rent a car for seven days, which left us with two days to sightsee on foot and via public transportation.

As for accommodations, Greg & I live in an 800 sq ft furnished one-bedroom apartment. We purchased a fancy queen-size air mattress to set up in the dining room area for guests. As it turned out, we didn't need it for mom & Ronnie because our neighbors were on vacation during the same days they were visiting and offered to let them stay at their house (in exchange for taking care of their cat). How nice is that?!?!

There are so many reasons why Greg & I love Portland that it was important for me to try to give our visitors a "taste" of all of our favorite things. This is actually not hard at all in a certain sense, as they could easily be incorporated into our daily activities. The challenge is to cram everything into 5 1/2 days! Here is the itinerary that I came up with based on their preferences and that we actually managed to follow. It just didn't leave much time for lounging around the house!

Sunday, June 17Pick our guests up from the airport (in a Zipcar) at 1pm. Bring them home and let them get settled, then go for a walk around our neighborhood.

Tuesday, June 19Pick up the rental car at 9am and drive to Astoria (two hours west of Portland) via Hwy 30. Sightsee & eat lunch at Ft George Brewery in Astoria, then follow Hwy 101 along the coast, stopping at Seaside, Ecola State Park, Cannon Beach, and Tillamook Cheese Factory. Return home via Hwy 6.

Friday, June 22Drive/hike to the top of Mt Tabor for great views of southeast & downtown Portland. Drive around historic Irvington neighborhood looking at old houses and heritage trees. Shop at Fubonn International Marketplace.

Saturday, June 23Drive three hours east on Hwy 84 to Hermiston, stopping at The Dalles and Stonehenge in Maryhill, WA. Visit with Ronnie's friends in the evening.

Tuesday, June 26Take guests to airport at 4:30am. Come home & sleep a bit longer, then drop off rental car by 10am.

As you can see, we did about as much as humanly possible in the time they were here. Sadly, Greg had just started his new job the week before they arrived so he was unable to join us except in the evenings (and we often got back fairly late from our daily adventures so even then our time with him was very limited). But we had a wonderful time and my mom keeps talking about how she & Ronnie would love to retire out here!

I
posted two highlights albums on Facebook, but to see all 485 photos
that I took during their visit, please click on the link below:

By chance, shortly after mom & Ronnie flew home to Tennessee, I was notified that I am a finalist in a sweepstakes sponsored by Portland Monthly Magazine. The topic: What makes Portland so livable? The grand prize:

Obviously I'd love to win this wonderful package, so if you want to help, please vote for me by first LIKING Portland Monthly Magazine on Facebook, then VOTING for my entry here. You can vote every day through July 13th, and the finalist with the most votes wins, so please put a reminder on your calendar and vote, vote, vote! Many thanks in advance!!!